Marciello walks on water!

Raffaele Marciello left Monza with a comfortable lead in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship after scoring two wins and a second place.

Sun 24.03.13, 6:06PM

The dreadful weather conditions did nothing to stop Marciello’s (Prema Powerteam) domination. Even though the red flag – hung out because of the pouring rain – meant that only half points were awarded in the third heat, the Ferrari Driver Academy protégé left the legendary Italian track with two wins and a second place in his pocket. These results put him 6.5 points in front of Pascal Wehrlein (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) and 31.5 points in front of Harry Tincknell (Carlin) and Lucas Auer (Prema Powerteam).

Thus, Marciello had an almost perfect weekend on home turf. “It’s a good result as Pascal Wehrlein will not be taking part in the rest of the championship, so I’ve opened up a bit of a gap. However, there’s still a long way to go in the championship with another twenty-six races. I don’t know Silverstone but I generally learn new tracks very quickly. I’m going to spend some time on the simulator to get to grips with the different aspects of the circuit. It’s a good start but I know that nobody’s going to give up: not my team-mates, not Tincknell, Blomqvist, Rosenqvist, Buller or several others. It was important to get the season off to a good start at home, but there’s still a lot to do!”

Pascal Wehrlein can also be satisfied with his last weekend of the year in Formula 3. “It wasn’t easy taking the weather into account, but with two top-three finishes and a victory I’m pretty happy with the way in which I’ve finished my Formula 3 career. Now it’s on to something completely new for me with the DTM and tests in Barcelona this coming week.”

Raffaele Marciello will be the man to beat in three weeks time at Silverstone in the context of the FIA World Endurance Championship meeting. Alex Lynn, who finished third today, is hoping to get back into contention on one of his favourite circuits. “I did a good damage limitation operation this weekend by scoring points in all the races. In the third heat Rafaelle was lucky to be able to start from the front and take advantage of better visibility, while Pascal could go for broke as he’s not gunning for the title. I just had to bring the car home, and that’s what I did. It’ll be my turn to race on at home next time out at Silverstone so I’ll have to do as well as Raffaele did here!”

In the teams’ championship Prema Powerteam leads from kftzteile24 Mücke Motorsport. British squads Carlin, Fortec Motorsports and ThreeBond with T-Sport complete the top five and they will be out for revenge on their home circuit at Silverstone on 13-14 April.